Wordless Wednesday 36: Journal

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Teaser Tuesday 118: Tombs of Endearment

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Plucked Tombs of Endearment, the third installment in the Pepper Martin mystery series by Casey Daniels, off the TBR stack last night and am already halfway through. Love this series! Pepper is a sassy, down-on-her-luck cemetery tour guide, who has recently discovered an ability to see ghosts. This week's teaser comes from near the middle of the book.

You’d think by now I’d be used to people (or at least people who used to be people) popping in and out of my life. And I was. Mostly.

Unless they happened to pop up in my bedroom.

(pg 105)

Back cover blurb:
Cemetery tour guide Pepper Martin never imagined she’d get to meet rock legend Damon Curtis, the bad boy poet who made millions of teenage girls scream. After all, he kicked the bucket years before she was born. But thanks to her newfound ability to chat up the dead, Pepper’s got a front row seat perfect for swooning over the still-sexy Damon’s latest lyrics. He’s convinced that his former bandmate Vinnie Pallucci murdered him back in ’71, and he’s promised Pepper she won’t get any rest or peace until she helps him prove it.

But when Pepper goes behind the music, she finds Vinnie with a knife in his heart and the rest of the band members running for their lives. And if Pepper doesn’t snare the killer soon, Damon’s next hit from the great beyond might be her swan song.

Gingerbread-Mouse Ornament

Another ornament photographed while in progress:

Random Photo: Tia

The boss's little dog, Tia.

Random Photo: Walking

I took advantage of the unusually warm weather Tuesday (it was 50 degrees here--in January!) and went for a long walk. Between the temp and wind, there was a lot of melting going on, which made for some rather tricky navigating at times. There were some more shaded sections of the sidewalk that were still icy, while others were under two inches of water. And crossing the streets? There was one corner where I was forced to cross to the other side of the street as I could not access the other corner without swimming jumping a two-foot moat. With temps in the mid-30s to 40s all week, there is hardly any snow left--not that we had much to begin with. This is not the warmest or least snowiest winter we've ever had, but it is sure to rank in the top ten.

Thursday Thirteen 236: Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day!

On this date last year, we were in the midst of a blizzard that dumped nearly 20 inches of snow across Southern Wisconsin. This year? Complete 180. Not only is there no snow, but we’ve had temps up to 50 degrees this week. 50—in January! It feels more like early April than February. So, chances are pretty good that rodent out in Sun Prairie is going to see his little shadow, and make us pay for all this unusually warm winter weather. In honor of it being Groundhog Day, here are a few facts about these famed weather prognosticators.

[ETA: Well, I'll be... Jimmy did not see his shadow this morning. Looks like we may get an "early" spring afterall.]


1. Groundhogs are the largest member of the squirrel family, weighing in at about 13 pounds, with the brain the size of a cashew. They are brown or reddish-brown in color, with black feet.

2. Also known as woodchucks or marmots, the average lifespan of a groundhog is 6-8 years in the wild, and up to 10 in captivity. They are naturally aggressive and do not make good pets. It takes a lot of training and patience to "tame" them.

3. Groundhogs are found in North America, primarily the northern and eastern United States, but also into Canada and Alaska. You will not find them in desert regions of the southwest, as they prefer areas where woods and fields abut.

4. Though ground dwellers, groundhogs can climb trees, and are fairly good swimmers.

5. Groundhogs will eat grass, fruits, vegetables and even tree bark. They can easily decimate an entire garden, putting on fat to prepare for the coming winter.

6. At the first sign of frost, groundhogs retreat to their burrows and hibernate until spring. During hibernation, the heart rate drops and body temperature isn’t much warmer than the temp of the burrow, about 40F.

7. The groundhog will lose half its body weight while hibernating (don’t you wish you could lose weight while sleeping?!).

8. In the spring, females will give birth to a littler of about six kits (or cubs), which stay with mom for several months.

9. February 2 is not only Groundhog Day, but also the Christian feast day, Candlemas. There is a saying associated with the day:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.

Sounds a bit familiar, yes?


10. The most famous groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil, who made his first prediction in 1886. He has a 39% rate of accuracy. Wisconsin’s Jimmy the Groundhog is reported to have an accuracy rate of 80%. Temperatures must be above freezing for seven consecutive days for a prediction of an early spring.

11. Wisconsin’s groundhog history is almost as old as Pennsylvania’s. Early journal entries from local farmers note observations of area groundhogs as far back as 1886, though an “official” Groundhog Day celebration did not begin until 1948, when Wisconsin celebrated its 100th anniversary.

12. In February1952, there was a congressional feud between the delegates from PA and WI over Groundhog Day that made national headlines. Later that year, Sun Prairie, WI was proclaimed “Groundhog Capitol of the World.”

13. The 1993 movie Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray, a weatherman who is forced to relive the same day over and over until he can become less selfish and learn to be a better person. Although set in Punxsutawney, PA, most of the movie was actually filmed in Woodstock, Ill.





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Wordless Wednesday 35: Common Milkweed

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Teaser Tuesday 117: Chasing Fire

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Spent much of the weekend fighting wildfires in Montana. Okay, so physically I was curled up with Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts (a novel about smoke jumpers), an afghan and a box of Kleenex. Finished the book, now if only I could be done with the cold! These lines come from somewhere near the middle.

Flames kindled with a whoosh as they gulped fuel and oxygen. Burning the body as the soul would burn. Peace settled while the fire climbed and spread.

How did it feel to murder and burn?

It felt right.

(pg 299)

BOOK COVER BLURB for CHASING FIRE:

Little else in life is as dangerous as fire jumping. Flying past towering pillars of smoke, parachuting down to the edge of an all-consuming blaze, shoveling and sawing for hours upon hours, days at a time, all to hold the line and push back against the raw power of Mother Nature.

But there's also little else as thrilling—at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are one of the most exclusive fire-fighting squads in the nation, and the job is in Rowan's blood: her father is a legend in the field. She's been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home—even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering in the air.

Fortunately, this year's rookie crop is among the strongest ever—and Gulliver Curry's one of the best. He's also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kid's arcade. He came to Missoula to follow in the footsteps of Lucas "Iron Man" Tripp, yet he's instantly more fascinated by his hero's daughter. Rowan, as a rule, doesn't hook up with other smoke jumpers, but Gull is convinced he can change her mind. And damn if he doesn't make a good case to be an exception to the rule.

Everything is thrown off balance, though, when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year's tragedy. Rowan knows she can't complicate things with Gull—any distractions in the air or on the ground could be lethal. But if she doesn't find someone she can lean on when the heat gets intense, her life may go down in flames.

Random Photo: Birds at Feeder

Random Photo: Ernie and Kiki

Two of a friend's six pets, Ernie the Cat and Kiki the dog-who-thinks-she's-a-cat. Both are afraid of the basement stairs.

Random Photo: Window View

Sorry I've been MIA the last couple days. Came down with a cold Wednesday so haven't had much energy to spare. Planning to hole up with a book, afghan and box of Kleenex this weekend. Achooo!

Teaser Tuesday 116: Flipped Out

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


It's back to cozy mysteries this week. Flipped Out is the fifth book in the "Do-It-Yourself" mystery series by Jennie Bentley. I love this series, and am almost half done already. Book three, Plaster and Poison, was a Teaser Tuesday featured book in April 2010.

A babble of protest greeted this pronouncement, as everyone wanted to express their shock, outrage, and innocence, all at the same time. Wayne held up a hand. "Save it for later. You'll have a chance to tell me your side of the story."

(pg 63)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led Avery Baker down a new career path—home renovation. Finding a property's hidden potential has rewards and challenges—not to mention certain unanticipated dangers. Like murder...

Avery and her hunky handyman boyfriend, Derek Ellis, are renovating another house in Waterfield, Maine. But it's not just any house. It belongs to local news anchor Tony "the Tiger" Micelli—and it's a quaint cottage with limitless possibilities. Even more exciting is that the makeover is going to be filmed as part of a home-renovation TV show.

Unfortunately the road to cable-TV fame is a bumpy one; this DIY spins into a DOA when Tony's corpse is found at the cottage, flat on his back and not from natural causes. Turns out there are a few people who wanted Tony dead, and the murderer might have his sights set on more Waterfield residents. That means it's up to Avery to nail the killer. And fast.

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:
1. Fatal Fixer-Upper
2. Spackled and Spooked
3. Plaster and Poison
4. Mortar and Murder

Starry Night

Back in March of 2011, I mentioned a large project that I had dug out to finish for myself. This was something I started X number of years ago, then set aside and somehow never got back to. Well, I am pleased to say that I did actually finish this project, on June 26, 2011. Here's a month-by-month chronology in completing this cross-stitch. Now to find a frame I like (and can afford)!


Progress as of March 27:



Progree as of April 25:



Progress as of May 22:



Progree as of June 2:



Progress as of June 21:



Finished, but unframed:

The Sky is Crying

The music world lost another icon Friday, blues singer Etta James, age 73. Though her passing was not a surprise (she had been battling leukemia and was hospitalized in December), her loss still saddens me. Miss James won six Grammies during her long career, putting out a final album, The Dreamer, just last year. I have two CD compilations of some of her greatest hits, At Last! and The Definitive Collection. Among her best known songs are: At Last, W-O-M-A-N, Try a Little Tenderness, Something's Got a Hold on Me, Tell Mama, Damn Your Eyes, The Sky is Crying, I've Been Loving You Too Long, A Sunday Kind of Love, Stormy Weather, I Just Want to Make Love to You -- and one of my favorites -- The Man I Love.

Am I Dry

Over on her blog today, Anita is talking about humidity, or the lack thereof during cold, winter months, and what you can do to combat it.

My apartment is extremely dry in winter--so much so that my sinuses are often sore or tender. Skin also suffers due to the aridness. Skin creams and moisturizers can help combat the dryness, as can using baby oil year-round after bathing. I find the baby oil especially helps my legs and back of the hands.

Another sign of how dry my apartment is, is that I have to water the philodendrons every 1-2 days. The only ones who actually like the dry air in my apartment are the Dragon Tree and Monster Fern. Being subtropical plants, they thrive on it, and I only water them about once a week.

Though I would love a humidifier, it's just not in the budget at this time. To help add moisture to the air, I have been doing the pot-on-the-stove trick a few times a week. This involves filling a large roaster almost to the top with water, and just letting it boil down. The only caution here is to watch that your pot doesn't boil dry, and that you remember to turn it off before leaving or going to bed. I also leave a shallow pan of water sitting on the back of the stove and--having a gas stove--need to refill it almost every morning.

Some would argue that part of the problem is that I keep my thermostat set too high, but I do not believe that to be true, for a number of reasons. See, though I have the thermostat set between 75 and 85, it is never actually that warm in my apartment. For one, I am over an unheated basement. I usually have to wear two pairs of socks (sometimes three!) during the winter to keep my feet warm. I am also on an exposed NW corner, am next to the back door, and there is little or no insulation in the walls. Which means that even when the thermostat says it's 80, it really isn't. You can actually feel the temp drop, walking from living room to back bedroom and bath. That's a drop of 10-15 degrees! And if the wind is blowing above 20mph? You can feel it blow right through the walls.

I also believe there is a mold issue in my apartment. I was flooded by the one above 4-1/2 yrs ago. Though they sopped up some of the water in my hallway, it wasn't enough. It was three or four weeks before the carpet and walls were completely dry, and to this day I have to keep an air freshener in the walk-in closet or it smells musty. Needless to say, I no longer store anything of value in there, unless it is in a plastic storage bin. And here is the irony of my apartment: during the summer it is so humid that the doors swell so much that I have to force the linen, bathroom and walk-in doors shut.

While they fixed the connections upstairs post-flood, they didn't do something right, because there was a steady leak in my wall from that day forward. Though I complained reported it regularly, it was more than two years before they finally repaired it. Naturally, in both instances, no one ever returned to my apartment to assess damages, even though I told them it was damaging my bathroom wall and ceiling. Last week, four years later, they were finally forced to repair it as the plaster was starting to peel and drop into my bathtub.

So between the walls, door frames, and hall carpet I do believe there is mold, especially under the carpet/carpet padding. I'd go so far as to bet that the sub-floor is separating, which is not good and actually happened in my kitchen before they repaired damage there (the previous tenants apparently broke a glass in the dishwasher. First time we used it, it flooded our kitchen, seeping under the tile).

Mold and dry air, of course, are only two of the many reasons why I need to find a new place to live. This place is killing me in more ways than one.

How about you> Do you have a problem with either mold or lack of humidity? How do you deal with it?

Thursday Thirteen 235: Recently Read

It feels like it's been forever since my last "Recently Read" post, though I know it's only been a couple months. I had hoped to get a couple more books read during December, but all things considered, I didn't do too bad. I did, afterall, not only meet but exceed my 2011 reading goal of 100 books during December. Now to start counting all over again!














* All but the two books by Kate Collins were read last year. Total books read in 2011: 105, which exceeds my goal by five, and is one better than the previous year. I had hoped to get a couple more read during December, but those darn holidays kept interfering.

* Since catching up on favorite authors/series is one of my 2012 reading goals, I was happy to see that Kate Collins is the Featured Author of the month for the Cozy Mysteries group at GoodReads. I read the first four books in her "Flower Shop Mystery" series previously, had five on the TBR shelf, and there are three more books I don't yet have. What better way to start off the new year, and a new reading challenge, than by tackling one of those reading goals?

* Deanna Raybourn and Janet Evanovich were recommended to me by friends. Of the two series, I think I am most likely to continue with Raybourn's "Lady Julia Grey."

* The Winter Widow and The Christmas Thief enabled me to cross two more states (Kansas and Vermont) off the "Read the USA" mystery challenge list. Only twenty more books to go...


WHAT ARE YOU READING THESE DAYS?

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Wordless Wednesday 34: Closed due to weather

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Teaser Tuesday 115: A Tale of Two Cities

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Have just begun A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, one of the January group reads for The Next Best Book Club at GoodReads. As I am not too far into it as yet, my teaser comes from very near the beginning. It's actually three sentences, but I love how this descriptive passage set the scene and sent a shiver down my spine.

There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hills like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.

(pg 7)

ABOUT THE BOOK
A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Dickens' greatest historical novel, traces the private lives of a group of people caught up in the cataclysm of the French Revolution and the Terror. Dickens based his historical detail on Carlyle's great work—The French Revolution—and also on his own observations and investigations during numerous visits to Paris.

"The best story I have written,'' was Dickens' own verdict on A Tale of Two Cities, and the reader is unlikely to disagree with this judgement of a story which combines historical fact with the author's unsurpassed genius for poignant tales of human suffering, self-sacrifice, and redemption.

WIP: Bear ornament

Snow!

Winter has finally arrived, and boy has it ever! Not only does it now look like winter, it feels like it, too. Since the end of November we've been experiencing above-normal temperatures, with highs of 40-50F and almost no snow. It was 51F here Tuesday, 50F on Wednesday. That night, though, the temperature started to drop fast. The high Thursday was only 23F, with windchills in the teens. Friday's high was 19F.


Wednesday evening a winter weather advisory was issued for our area from 6am Thursday until 6am Friday. Whoo-hoo! The first official storm of the season was finally on its way! Not only was it going to be cold and windy, they were predicting 5-6 inches of snow for our area.


The snow started to fall sometime after midnight, in the wee hours of the morning. By the time people were up and on their way to work, it was really coming down, and fell steadily throughout the day.


I had to take a break midday Thursday and step outside to get a few pictures at work, knowing I would get home far too late to get any snow pics that night.


I love that there was a gust of wind just as I snapped this pic, so you can see it swirling off the corner of the building. Kind of makes you shiver, doesn't it?


At least the trees no longer look drab and boring, sugar-coated in fresh new snow.


Offocial snow total for our area was 5.4 inches -- more than doubling our snow total thus far. The biggest snowfall we'd had prior to this was around 2 inches. We had flurries this morning and into early afternoon, and there is a chance for more flurries or light snow Saturday. Cold temps persist at least through next week. Looks like my winter boots are finally going to get a bit of use this year!